February 7 to 23 Take place in Russia, in Sochi, the Olympic Winter Games. With eleven new structures and a total cost of 51 billion dollars, the Olympic Games in Sochi enter the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive Olympics ever, surpassing even the 2008 Beijing summer, costing 46.5 billion dollars.
The Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games bring the excitement of winter sports and technical sportswear in Russia. There are 88 countries taking part in the competitions: the bob snowboarding, going for sledding, ice hockey and downhill skiing are 15 disciplines in which athletes compete to win an Olympic medal. The mascots of the 2014 Sochi Olympics are three animals: the Polar Bear, the Hare and the snow leopard. In Russia, the "Valanga Azzurra" is composed of 113 athletes competing in 13 different disciplines: from the skeleton cross-country skiing Italians will try to win an Olympic medal.
New specialties to debut
The Olympic Committee has recently approved the introduction of new races: some new specialties are already Olympic disciplines, other disciplines that are debuting for the first time in an edition of the Winter Games.
Among the novelties of the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014 are:
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Biathlon: medley relay
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Figure Skating - Team competition
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Sledding - team competition
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Halfpipe skiing - male and female
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Slopestyle skiing - male and female
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Parallel slalom snowboard - male and female
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Slopestyle snowboarding - male and female
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Ski Jumping - female